www.fantasychessteam.com has launched its inaugural competition giving chess fans around the world the chance to select their dream teams for the forth coming chess Olympiad in Istanbul.

In only a few days time the first round of the Istanbul Chess Olympiad will have finished and we will discover which teams and individuals are genuine contenders for the gold medals.

Now, thanks to two chess addicts from Yorkshire in the United Kingdom, chess fans will have another good reason to follow the results of their national teams and favourite players. The Fantasy Chess Team website gives them the chance to select their own Olympiad team and score points based on their chosen participants’ performance for their national sides. If that wasn’t motivation enough there will also be a range of prizes on offer for the most successful Fantasy Chess Olympiad team managers.

Players can choose to “Play for Free” and compete for fun or take the competition more seriously by playing in a “Winner Takes All” contest where an entry fee of £5 is paid to contribute to the prize fund.

Fantasy Chess Team is the first website dedicated to offering this kind of competition to chess fans.

“The success of the London Olympics played a big part in inspiring us to create the website,” say the Directors of ChessEx Ltd, the website’s owners. “We’ve worked really hard to get the site up and running in a very short space of time. In the long term we’d like to run more Fantasy Chess Team competitions around national and international team competitions. We would also like to re-use some of the entry fees we collect to support team chess events and chess education programmes. For the moment however we are very excited about the next few weeks and we’re totally focused on making the Fantasy Chess Olympiad as much fun as it can be for entrants.”

An online entry form is now available as well as a number of useful web links and downloads to help players pick their teams. The closing date for entries is 9.00 (GMT) on Tuesday the 28th of August.

The website will be posting daily league table updates during the course of the Olympiad and will aim to add a different perspective on the event by also publishing a range of related articles including an exclusive diary by one of the competition’s less well known combatants.

Prize Sponsors
Fantasy Chess Team is seeking prize sponsors for its “Free to Play” competition. If your organisation would like to donate a prize in exchange for coverage on the website and in promotional material during the Olympiad then please contact us.